madbottoms | Spellbound 2/14 + Epilogue (Reply)

Title: Spellbound - Chapter 2

Author: Madbottoms

Prompt: Practical Magic

Pairing(s)/Characters: Jack/Ianto, Donna, John (Smith), Gwen/Adam, Owen, Tosh, OC’s.

Rating: PG

Length: 25k +

Warnings: Magic, dark themes, minor character death.

A/N 1: Written for reel_torchwood See chapter 1 for disclaimer and full author notes.

Many years later, Ianto stood on the balcony of the second floor, leaning on the rail, as he stared at the full moon. Ianto’s teenage years had floated by like the sands of time and he was quite content to live this way. His Aunt and Uncle doted on him and his sister loved him fiercely. But Gwen was restless and itching to see the world.

Behind him, he heard giggling excitement from his sister and turned to see Gwen come barrelling out the doors with a large rucksack and tossed it over her shoulder.

“Ianto, get the door. Get the door,” Gwen requested breathlessly as she threw the bag over the balcony. Her face was flushed but happy, as Ianto closed the door and leaned forward to look over the balcony.

Below, a cute boy caught the bag, staggering slightly under the weight. He still managed to look manly enough to impress Gwen though, as she smiled and winked at him.

“Wow!” Ianto puffed out, pushing his glasses back into place. “You’re really going to do this?”

Gwen threw one leg over the railing. “I have to.”

“Do you really love him? I mean enough to marry him?”

“Oh come on, Ianto, what’s enough? I hate it here. I want to go where... where no one’s ever heard of us.” Gwen put her other leg over and faced Ianto.

“I feel like I’m never going to see you again.”

“Of course you’re gonna see me again, silly,” Gwen reassured him, combing her hand through his long hair. “We’re going to grow old together, brother. It’s going to be you and me living in this big house, these two old eccentrics, like Aunt and Uncle with all these cats.” Ianto laughed at her description.
“I mean, I bet we even die on the same day.”

“You swear?” Ianto asked hopefully.

Gwen looked below to her boyfriend. “Honey! I need your pocket knife.” He tossed it up and Gwen caught it easily. “Here,” she said and opened the knife, running the blade across her right palm, wincing. A thin line of blood welled from the cut. Ianto looked dubious. “My blood.” Gwen then ran the blade along Ianto’s left palm as he flinched. “Your blood.”

They placed their hands together, palm to palm. “Our blood,” they said together, before hugging over the rail.

“I love you, Gwen.”

“Yeah,” Gwen replied fondly. “Love you too, Ianto.”

Gwen jumped down from the balcony, landing gracefully, and leaped onto her boyfriend’s back, giggling, and waved up to her brother. Ianto waved back as he watched them vanish down the path into the night.

*~*

Time passed as months turned into years and life went on for Ianto and Aunt Donna and Uncle John. They heard from Gwen sporadically, but not as much as Ianto would have liked. But he did not begrudge Gwen her life and what she had found for herself out in the world. He just hoped she was safe and happy.

The three of them were in town for the day, Donna sporting her sun umbrella as they made their way out of the post office and across the street in the sunshine. Ianto’s hair was shorter than it used to be and his glasses gone, thanks to contacts. But he still wore them at home, finding them much easier to handle than sticking silly little plastic things in his eyes all the time. Sometimes he wished he could find a spell to fix his eyesight. But it was a part of who he was and in reality he knew he wouldn’t really change it.

The townspeople still avoided them when they saw them coming. Ianto did have a few friends however, but they seemed to be avoided just as much as the Jones’. Ianto’s friends were also ‘different’ yet they didn’t seem to worry about it as much as he did. To them it was normal, if you could call his friends ‘normal’. Owen was as narky as a person could be, but he was funny and Tosh, well she had a bit of a dark side but knew when to err on the side of caution.

Ianto knew he should feel proud of who he was too, but sometimes he wished he was someone else entirely.

Aunt and Uncle on the other hand had no qualms and John, in particular, was determined to show he was unperturbed. He merrily greeted everyone that walked past, ignoring the way they reacted ... as if they had just come into contact with the plague.

John happily spoke to a group of young boys outside the post office. “Good morning. Hello boys.” And to an elderly man who almost walked into the trio. “Oh Charlie! Looking good!” But the man abruptly changed directions.

“Oh John, let it go, you daft fool. They’ll never change, they’re too stuck up and set in their ways.”

“Oh, Donna, my darling sister, you are just as set in yours. Sometimes things have a way of happening, sneaking up on us,” John murmured, as he examined the open letter in his hand. “Oh my goodness, Gwen’s in Orlando.”

Donna was unsurprised. “I guess that Roto-Rooter man is history.”

“Well, according to this,” John waved the letter, “he is.”

“This is insane,” Ianto muttered, taking the letter from his uncle. “She keeps going through all these guys.”

“Well hopefully, someday she’ll find a guy who’ll go through her,” Donna snickered cheekily.

John continued to address people as they walked through town. “Hello... Hello, darling. How are you?” He greeted a young girl, whose mother turned the daughter’s face and shielded her protectively as they moved past. But John just kept smiling, not offended at all.

“Oh, John, give it up.”

“Never,” John replied mischievously.

Ianto stopped and leaned against a large tree, its branches full of blossoms, and frowned. “God I miss her.”

“Oh, my boy, you still have us,” John consoled him. As they stood there, a storm of leaves fell off the tree in a spiral to the ground, in response to Ianto’s melancholy. He pushed off the tree and continued walking while John sadly watched the leaves falling. “Oh dear.”

“All I want is a normal life, Uncle John. Is that too much to ask?” John hugged Ianto warmly in response as they walked on.

“Sunshine,” Donna began, “when are you going to understand that being normal is not necessarily a virtue? It rather denotes a lack of courage.”

“Well it’s what I want.”

John pointed a young couple, who became nervous and picked up their pace. “You see that couple? He’s having an affair with the babysitter. And she can eat a pound cake in under a minute.” He smiled at them, knowingly.

From behind the couple emerged a young woman, sweeping the pavement outside the front of an antique store. Dark skinned with long brown hair, her face like an angel. As they passed the shop front, the young girl’s gaze followed Ianto, who did the same. The two, unashamedly stared at each other in the middle of the street. Ianto stumbled, and faced forward again, mumbling ‘Sorry’ to whoever he’d bumped into as Donna steadied him with an arm.

“Come along. Come along.”

John stopped and studied the young woman thoughtfully. The woman continued her chore smiling as John sunnily called out, “Hello.” And turned and followed his sister and nephew.

A couple of days later, Ianto worked in the herb garden as Donna and John sat at the patio table playing cards.

“What time is it?” John asked impatiently.

“Any moment now,” Donna replied, equally impatient.

A gong struck, signalling three in the afternoon. Ianto raised himself up off the ground and listened, as if someone or something was calling to him. He dropped his trowel and walked out of the garden, almost in a trance.

Donna called to Ianto knowingly, “Where are you going, Sunshine?”

John smiled maniacally and turned to watch Ianto’s progress, “Oh, that’s just brilliant.”

Not really understanding what was happening, Ianto picked up his pace and headed into the town, arriving a few minutes later. He stopped a few metres away from the antique store. The door slowly opened and the young woman from before stepped out and gazed at Ianto lovingly. They walked toward each other and smiled before she jumped on him and wrapped her arms around his neck as they kissed passionately. It was like an invisible force had pulled them together, and it just felt so right.

From that moment, life was great for Ianto. He had a beautiful wife, Lisa, and two wonderful children. Ianto felt like he had finally been accepted. They lived in town but would visit Aunt Donna and Uncle John regularly. They would walk through town, Ianto helping his eldest, Erin, ride her bike while, Lisa would pull Andrew in his wagon. No one shied away from them as they made their way down the street. There were no stones or taunts cried out. Everything was blissfully normal.

Life was perfect.

Ianto had written to Gwen and told her as much. He was only sorry that she couldn’t be there to see how very happy he was. He still missed his sister greatly and worried about her all the time. Her latest letter had not really said much other than she had met yet another man. His name was Adam and according to Gwen, he was a God. Ianto didn’t know why but he had a bad feeling about his sister and couldn’t quite shake it. But Gwen kept telling him things were all good. So Ianto let it go, reluctantly, and concentrated on the family with him.

*~*

As Ianto lay in bed with his family, he heard a chirrup somewhere in the room. The sound was somehow familiar to Ianto as it moved its way closer, under the bed, still chirruping. To escape the sound, Ianto pulled the pillow out from under his head and slammed it down over his ears. This didn’t help. All night Ianto lay restless in bed, unable to get rid of the sound and the dread in his heart. It was coming and he knew he wouldn’t be able to stop it.

Come morning and Lisa took the kids to school as Ianto straightened the house up. In the living room, Ianto could hear the sound of the deathwatch beetle again. He spotted the bug crawling across the floor, tipping itself into a gap between the floorboards just as Ianto’s hand slapped down to squash it.

“Damn it!” he cursed. “Where’d you go? Where are you? Don’t do this to me!” He yelled frantically, grabbing a screwdriver from the open toolbox he’d left out and started prying at the gap between the floorboards. Ianto frenetically worked the boards up in search of the beetle. He tipped over a table to gain access to more of the floorboards beneath. Frantically, he swept the debris out of the way and put his ear to the floor and listened. Nothing. He moved right and listened again. The beetle chirruped, as if mocking him.

“I hear you. Don’t. No. Please.” He scrabbled at the boards with his hands and grabbed the screwdriver, put it down again and kept going with his hands.

After dropping the kids at school, Lisa made her way back to the antique shop she and Ianto ran in the town centre. As she strolled down the street, she greeted a friend and they chatted momentarily before she continued on, crossing the quiet road.

Ianto succeeded in ripping another floorboard loose and peers in. The beetle was not there.

“No!”

On the street, a black dog that had been following Lisa sat on the kerb and watched a group of cyclists sweep around the corner of the street, moving quickly.

Ianto pulled up another board with the screwdriver. The beetle wasn’t there either. “That can’t be. No. No!” Ianto was sweating and breathing heavily. He had to find the beetle.

The bikes continued down the street. Lisa, standing in the middle of the street, turned back to say hello to another acquaintance and waved.

Ianto yanked up another board and grunted in effort. “I know you’re in there.”

“Look out, Lisa,” someone yelled as the bikes approached.

As if hearing this, Ianto looked up, as he sat in a big hole in the bedroom, with loose boards lying around him.

“Behind you,” another person called out to Lisa. “On your right!”

Lisa stopped, startled, on the road, hugging herself tightly as the bikes rush past her, all around her. She stood still, eyes closed in relief as the bicycles continued the on their way.

Ianto sat frozen to the spot, listening with his mind. Was she okay?

The bikes left Lisa behind and she turned around after them, raising her hand in a wave. She breathed a sigh of relief and turned back around the way she was going.

Ianto continued to listen and he heard the sound of an oncoming vehicle. “No- No- No- No- No,” he sobbed. As if seeing through his wife’s eyes, Ianto saw the grill of the truck and gasped, jolted, as if he were the one struck...

Lisa was hurled into the air and fell to the ground, battered and broken.